Tony Perkins and his sad devotion to that ancient religion

There’s a lot of reasons to be a little wary of MMOs. They’re huge time sinks, addictive (as are most things that are tons of fun). None of those seem to bother Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, but he’s got another reason for why you should eschew Bioware’s recent foray into the market, Star Wars: The Old Republic…

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council — a hate group, according the the Southern Poverty Law Center — took to the radio to denounce Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

“In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists!” Perkins announced during his daily radio commentary. “In a galaxy not so far far away, Star Wars gamers have already gone to the dark side. The new video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has added a special feature: gay relationships.”

Holy shit! Send in the troops! They’re treating homosexuality like it actually exists!!!

Family is such a beautiful concept. It’s a real pity when adherence to a collection of ignorant words causes modern day people to turn the word “family” into a euphemism for god-endorsed discrimination. Yet anytime you hear a fundamentalist Christian use that word, you can bet the farm they’re about to oppose equality in the name of Jesus. This is the ugliness of faith – it empowers immoral behavior.

He continued: “On the game’s website, there are more than 300 pages of comments–a lot of them expressing anger that their kids will be exposed to this Star Warped way of thinking. You can join them by logging on and speaking up. It’s time to show companies who the Force is really with!”

Wrong answer, Tony. The “We’re the majority!” card is a pretty impotent play in general. It’s even more impotent when you’re not the majority. The majority of Americans support same-sex marriage. If you want Bioware to trust in the force of pleasing the majority, you and the bad guys of bigot galaxy have all the appeal of a rancor.

It turns out that same-sex romance isn’t even in the game…yet. It will be added in the near future according to Bioware.

In a statement on their website, Bioware explained that same sex relationships were not yet possible in the game.

“Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature,” the company wrote. “Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.”

Good on them. I only play the game a few hours a week at most, but they can have my $15/month.

If you play SWTOR, I’m on Vrook Lamar. My characters are (all Republic side) Ureldor, Dag, Jenar, and Glenn. Perhaps we can make a blasphemous guild?